Impressions Part II
from this summer Art Lab in Civitella D'Agliano by Linda Kunik
In the article used images by Linda Kunik and Lark Pilinsky
Thursday, July 16
I didn’t journal yesterday. I worked in the studio.
No great news about my work. It’s so hot. We’re having a heat wave. At least I slept till 6:30. That’s a little better. A rooster is crowing again. Does it say cock-a-doodle-doo or coo-cu-roo-cu? I think the latter. It sounds more Italian anyway. I decided to walk to the main piazza to try a new place for breakfast this morning, the Insomnia Cafe. Saw Karen on the way. She’s an early riser, too. We walked around for a short while, she showing me an interesting street, and me taking her to an area of charming residences. Finally got to the Café. Ordered a cafe latte, fresh succo d’arancia and a corneto filled with sweet cream. Actually better than the other café and only 4 euros. A little more expensive, but worth it for the freshly squeezed orange juice alone, and the café latte is much hotter. I hate luke warm coffee. I will work in the studio all day. Painting, thinking, writing in my journal, taking photographs of the beautiful city.
Yesterday was a bust. Began one painting on a 22” x 30” piece of cold-pressed watercolor paper. The paint dried too fast for me to control. It’s too hot.
Ripped it up and threw it away, thinking maybe watercolor wasn’t such a good idea after all.
Very frustrated. Decided to try working smaller. Good idea. Won’t dry so fast. Making some lovely small works, cutting, ripping, using vibrant colors. Things are starting to click.
A special evening on the 3rd floor of the Fortress. The mayor is there, plus many townspeople. Enzo Marino (internationally famous artist from Napoli) is there, talking about his work and his book. And we have a beautiful buffet dinner, with of course, plenty of delicious Italian wine. No cooking tonight! Great! I slept well. Grazie vino bianco!
Friday, July 17
It’s the Farmer’s Market today. I want to stock up on fresh vegetables and whatever else looks good since we make a lot of meals in the apartment. Taco-like trucks are everywhere, selling everything from cheese to salami to roasted pork. Christian says I must buy some pork. The man in the truck cuts me a slice. It’s delicious. I will have it for lunch today with sliced heirloom tomatoes and fresh basil. The market is bustling. A good chance to see who lives in Civitella.
There are two locations selling fresh fruit and vegetables, but the majority of the market consists of racks and racks of clothing for men, women and children, kitchen supplies and all kinds of other stuff. I was expecting more vegetables. I buy two beautiful, large heirloom tomatoes, 2 zucchini, one small onion, 2 beautiful nectarines, an equally beautiful peach, 2 huge bell peppers. How much? 3 euros. Try buying all that at your local Farmer’s Market for 3 euros. Went back to La Quercia for dinner tonight with a small group. I had tagliata with truffles with the house red. Delicious!
Sat. July 18
10 of us squeezed into two cars to go to the Klimt Art Store in Viterbo today. There is no public transportation in Civitella. It’s a small town, with no art store and no hardware store, one restaurant (the other restaurant was closed for vacation) and two cafes. I bought more paint, brushes and some palette knives. I have decided to try using the one piece of Hot Pressed watercolor paper I brought. It’s smoother and the paint will glide. Nevertheless, more paint and larger brushes are essential. And I bought a fan! Thank the heavens! Now I can take a nap and sleep at night.
There’s a winery on the piazza. Sergio Mottura and his wife, Alexandra, have their cellar there and the 100-acre vineyard is nearby. Sergio, our other group leader says the Motturas want people for their promotional video. Am I interested? Yes, I am. Can I find 6 more people? Yes, I can. We meet at 7p.m. and off we go in two cars to the vineyards. The house is an ancient one, with some new additions. Acres and acres of vineyards, as far as the eye can see and a big beautiful blue swimming pool. Oh how I want to go for a swim! We walk through the vineyards with Sergio as he explains the cultivation of grapes. You can see how much he loves being in the fields. He handles the grapes like a newborn baby. After walking around the vineyards, we go back to the house and have a wine tasting. The white wine is delicious. That’s what this area in Lazio is known for. Will we be in the video? We’ll find out at the Wine Festival next Thursday.
Monday, July 20
I wake up a little after 5 a.m., almost with a start. I could see the painting in my head. Torn red paper, black, yellow ochre, purple near each other. Hot pressed paper slides. I throw my clothes on and almost run to the studio. And since it’s so early, I know the paint won’t dry too quickly. Sunday was a rest day, but I’m ready to work today. More later!
Success! I have more work to do, but already I know it will be good. This whole week I have been working on small pieces, successes, failures, thinking, sketching--lots of time for all of it in a small town. I have the beginnings of a great new body of work. Think Jim Dine. Colors dripping. Splotches of deep color--reds, purples, black, white--tearing the paper, color underneath. Maybe I’ll use gouache or acrylic on some of the pieces. The ideas are flowing right now. What a good feeling.
I will have two opportunities to show the work--1st in Civitella d’Agliano during the Wine Festival (24.25.26 Luglio), and next year in Rome at the Romanian Consulate near the Borghese Gardens. Christian just informed us yesterday of the 2nd show for the whole group of artists. How wonderful! I’m so excited. Two exhibitions in Italy! Brava Linda! And Enzo has invited us to be a part of an artist residency he’s putting together in India this January. Can’t wait to paint some more. I’m on a roll.
I decided to cook tonight. After the first coat of paint, I went to the market in town and bought Botticello tomatoes and tagliatelle pasta. I will make my own tomato sauce. I blanch the tomatoes and then take off the skin and get rid of the seeds. Then salt and sauté the onions and garlic and everything goes in the pot—tomatoes, wine, basil. In 30 minutes I have a great chunky tomato sauce. It smells heavenly. Then I sauté zucchini in one pan and red and yellow bell peppers in another. Libbet, Diana and Anis, from the apartment next door will join us and bring food to share. I invited Donna, an amazing portrait painter, too.
She said she would bring a bottle of wine. You can never have too much wine. I do all the prep work and walk out to the piazza to see what’s happening. Sergio and Alexandra are serving wine outside, under the umbrellas in front of the wine cellar and tasting rooms. Larissa is there, too. She invites them for dinner. I panic. Inviting Italians for dinner when I’m making pasta and it’s not my own kitchen. Get over it Linda. Just do it. Miriam, my apartment-mate helps me. We use the pink-striped bed sheet as a tablecloth. It actually looked pretty good. We have flowers we cut from the bushes along the roadsides (yes, we stole a few flowers), in a plastic cut water bottle vase. Fruit in a glass bowl. I set out the pasta, zucchini and peppers and the one bottle of wine that I have. Miriam bought some beer. We put that out, too. Libbet brings 3 dishes---a beet salad with feta and walnuts, a mixed green salad and sliced wild boar salami, (God bless her), Anis and Diana bring 3 large bottles of beer and Sergio and Alexandra bring 3 cold bottles of their amazingly delicious white wine. Donna is there too, with a great bottle of red. We fill our plates, grab a glass of wine or beer and walk out onto the veranda to watch the night sky. Sergio says the pasta is delicious, and he’s impressed that’s it’s al dente. “Americans always overcook the pasta,” he chides me. I’m so relieved. I don’t go to bed until after midnight. What a great evening!
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